Senate, House continue tax cut negotiations

Posted by Leigh Evans on May 19, 2015

Cleveland Advocate - Members of the House and Senate continue to try to find a compromise between each chamber’s preferred method of delivering billions in tax relief to Texans. The Senate has made property taxes a priority, passing a bill to provide more than $2 billion in tax cuts by raising the homestead exemption.

...Though many of the bills relating to the session’s top issues have already passed the Senate, lawmakers continued this week to work on passage of other key pieces of legislation. Monday, the Senate approved a bill that would protect the identities of pharmacies that supply drugs used by the state to execute prisoners.

Senator Joan Huffman of Southside Place says that such pharmacies have faced harassment from anti-death penalty advocates, which could make obtaining the necessary drugs harder and harder.

“I think it had a chilling effect on reputable pharmacies wanting to provide these compounds to the state of Texas and it’s been very difficult for the state to procure these compounds,” she said.